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250 Thousand People Sign Petition For the EBU to Change Eurovision 2016 Results

Eurovision always causes a tsunami of voting commentary and discussion. However 2016 seems to have been a storm that doesn’t want to go away quietly.

You will know by now Jamala won the contest narrowly for the Ukraine over Dami Im from Australia and Sergey Lazarev of Russia.

Dami Im won the Jury Vote, Jamala came second and Sergey came far back in 6th place. However with the public vote the result was very different to that of the juries. The Public voted Dami Im 4th, Michal Szpak from Poland 3rd, Jamala 2nd and Sergey Lazarev from Russia was the clear public favourite.

An on-line petition was set up on Change.org asking for the EBU to change the result of this year’s contest – SEE HERE.

These petitions are not common however it is interesting that 250 thousand people have signed the petition in less than 48 hours.

The top comment on the petition, with over 8 thousand likes is

“I’m signing this petition because Ukrainian song shouldn’t have won. It was against the rules, they used their situation in the country, and of course everyone felt bad because of it and that’s why she won. The real winner should have been Sergey Lazarev from Russia. It was totally unfair, this FESTIVAL was about the great music that gets stuck in your head not about the POLITICS. This was a big fraud.

Aleksandra Mladenovic, Leskovac, Serbia

2 days ago

8,337 – Likes”

The petition is not going to see the result of the contest being overturned – and neither should it be – however it does highlight the mass public opinion there is regarding the influence of 5 jury members have in a country for the votes of 50% of the contest.

Is this something that the EBU can ignore? Does the profession jury influence on the contest need to be reviewed following yet again more controversy seen this year? What do you think?

UPDATE

The EBU have officially responded to the on-line petition. You can read their response HERE